Category Archive

I’ve had a couple of comments and inquiries on how my center console turned out and would I put some templates up.

To begin, I found the original templates I used at

http://www.miniprojects.co.uk/mini_DIY_guides_make_your_own_centre_console.htm

and downoaded the pdf

http://www.miniprojects.co.uk/DIYphotos/classic_mini_centre_console_template.pdf

The templates didn’t quite work like I wanted, so what I did was to cut the templates out of cardboard then with the use of scissors and tape I either trimmed them to fit properly or added more cardboard to fill properly. Once I had the cardboard cutouts so they fit like I wanted I used them as templates for new cutouts. Again, out of cardboard. I then put the completed cardboard center console into my mini and drove around for a week or so with it to make sure it was what I wanted.

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Then after a week of messing with that I finally cut out the console using thin MDF and some scraps I had around. I then went to halfords and picked up 2 illuminated cigarett lighters. I use these to drive my ipod and NavSat. I pulled the power for these off of the starter. I’ll eventually rewire the car and put these through their own fused circuit.

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A few things to note. I finally decide on 2 cup holders. It’s a tight fit sometimes but I think worth it. To keep the cups from dropping down too far, and to also add structural strenght to the console I added a bar about 2 inches under the cup holes across and screwed it together.

I left the bottom open to allow air flow for the heater.

I’ve been driving with this draft version for a couple of months because I’m lazy and haven’t finished the final version yet. (-: This has worked pretty good so far.

Roberta and I went over to small village of Lasswade the other day to get a meal at the Laird & Dog Hotel and pub. It turns out that the Pub/Hotel can trace it’s roots back to at least 1709.  Here is a link to the Charter and Title of the original Larid and Dog from 1709.

There is a sign in the pub that gives a folk lore version of where the village of Lasswade got its name. It’s really kind of neat.

Jenny Lasswade

When there was nae brig to cross the Esk river,

On Jenny’s broad back they a’ gaed thegither,

For Jenny was honest, stout, sober, and steady,

She carried the laird, she carried his leddy;

When he was richt seated the doggie first gaed,

Then, weaving his stick, he cried: “Jenny, lass, wade!”

American translation.

When there was no bridge to cross the Esk river,

On Jenny’s broad back they would go together,

For Jenny was honest, stout, sober, and steady.

She carried the Lord, she carried his Lady;

When he was right seated the doggie first went

Then, waving his stick, he cried; “Jenny, Lass, Wade!”

This real name for Lasswade isn’t quite so colorful.

The rhyme was written by a Miss Walker when she was staying at Hawthornden Castle perhaps one hundred years ago. The name of Lasswade is most likely to have originated from the combining of the words leas (a meadow) and gewaed ( a ford).

Going through some website modifications so the site will be up and down for a while.

A quick and odd blog post. A look into my mind during the course of a normal day. What are some of the things that go through my mind in a day?

Well, to start with, I work on the biggest research computer in all of the UK and the second largest in Europe, HECToR. You’d think that it would be enough to keep a persons mind occupied at all times while at work. Well, you’d be thinking wrong.  It is after all just an 11k+ processor linux machine. (-:

I started my day by catching up on my emails, respond to some data request in preparation for our added Cray X2 system that will arrive next week. Then onto the web to check out Dilbert, read Roberta’s Blog, check out the latest HPC news at InsideHPC, picking on my friend John Leidel in the process, and checking on the status of Randy Pausch, a professor at Carnagie Mellon who is battling Pancreatic Cancer. 

I’ve finished my first cup of coffee at this point and I’m off for the next. Starbucks coffee which I supply to the office, because I’m sick and tired of all the “Fair Trade” crap coffee that the university of Edinburgh buys, I like to refer to it as the “Goat Piss Coffee”. By the way, fair trade is nothing more than a marketing gimick here in the UK. It’s sad.

 I then head over to Climate Debate Daily to see if there is anything new and exciting on the “We’re all going to die!” Global warming arena. Nothing too exciting happening there, but it does remind me to do some more research in the state of Nuclear Fuel Recycling. I’m a fan of nuclear power, but want to know more about all the ins and outs of what that entails. One of the questions being why the US doesn’t do recycling, I just didn’t understand that. Now I do a bit better. Recycling the fuel rods, about 95% is reusable, is a nasty business. It’s expensive and dangerous, but there are about 10 different ways to do it now, and hopefully some brain will come up with a better way at some point in the near future.

By the way, they’re building a pretty cool mine over in Finland to store nuclear waste, taking into account the next Ice Age no less, it’s called Deep Geological storage. It’s an interesting subject and so I do some reading on that. Holes drilled in steel to hold the rods, then covered in copper and buried in a specific type of Clay, some research on crush pressures etc. After a bit I head over to Wikipedia again and start some research into the life cycles of nuclear power plants and the current reactor designs available and future thoughts. Pebble Bed reactors seem like a cool idea, but it looks like using a variety of reactors might be a better solution. The offal of one reactor being used to power a different one.

Somehow this leads to a youtube search which pops up the biggest rocket engine test ever. Not real sure how I hit that, but hey, interesting none the less. Which in turn leads to a video of a Shuttle Main Engine test in Mississippi and makes me miss my days at Stennis Space Center. This in turn leads to the workings of a jet engine, which is pretty fascinating. I probably spend an hour catching up on how a jet engine functions. Just thinking abou the tolerances required and stresses induced by a fan spinning at 11,000 rpm are impressive, and then watching a slow motion bird strike test is almost surreal. The way the blades absorb the energy, and then if a blade comes loose the tranfer of all that kinetic energy into the shroud. Pretty impressive stuff. This for some reason reminds me of the Pulse Jet engines that I read about in the past so I went out and looked at the current state of Pulse Jet Engines and some of the crazy people buiding them in their garages. Thinking to myself, who would get more pissed if I built one of these in my garage? The wife, the neighbors, or the local constables? hmmm.. Might need to find out. (-:

About this time my stomache growls to tell me to get some lunch. I head up to M&S to get a sandwich, come back, grab my fiddle and head out to play some music. Which starts a whole new train of thought for the afternoon. Which turns out to be even more interesting than the thought train of the morning.

I almost forgot, while following my morning train of thought, I have actually been working also.

Thank god they didn’t have riddlin when I was a kid.

For those who don’t know. Before deciding to turn our lives upside down and move to Scotland we were living the good life in Pacific Grove California. This just happened to be the closest I had ever been to a small festival held every year in the Black Rock desert called Burningman. I think last year burningman had about 30,000 attendees.

Burning man can be described in many ways. I’ve heard it called, just a bunch of naked bicycle riding hippies in the desert, to the biggest art, freedom, party, get together, experience in the world. My neighbor Chuck just shook his head and looked at me like a was a nutter to even contemplate going to such an event. A week sucking sand in the middle of the desert with 30,000 ex hippies and crazies.

Well, sadly, even after making all my plans to go, we decided to move 1/3 of the way across the world from the Black Rock Desert, and my goals of attending Burning man were crushed.

Then, on the television Sunday night they had a special on a music festival called the Glastonbury Festival.

Instead of an art themed festival, this is a music themed festival. Music! Alright!!! The Glastonbury festival is the closest thing to a bunch of half naked bicycle riding hippies partying in the desert that the UK can get to. It’s a bunch of half naked, crazed, music loving partying hippies in a remote area of southern England. A week long music, party, camp out, good time!

I won’t be able to make this years festival, the timing is just too tight. The festival is the end of the month and only 400 miles to the south of me. So, not this year, but next year, watch out!

A friend and co-worker of mine has come over to help solve some problems on our HECToR system, he’s become something of Crays batch scheduler expert. When you’re dealing with 11k+ processors you can get some interesting issues when trying to schedule work on the system.

What’s been interesting is that he’s never been to Scotland before and so I’ve been trying to show him around a bit after work and it’s been really an eye opener to get a new perspective on Edinburgh. We’ve only been here less than 5 months now, but we’ve already become so used to driving past stone walls, castle towers, cathedrals, stone tenement housing, etc, that I don’t even notice them most of the time now. It’s really sad.

Driving John around in my Mini, yes two full sized adults DO fit in it, and hearing him exclaim “Wow did you see that? Hold up a minute I want a picture of that.” over and over as I drive home from work. Well, it makes one stop and see the sights again and realize just how fascinating some of the things a stones throw from home can be.

Some of the sights on my drive home.

I leave work and drive through the Bush Estate

to the Gowkley Moss roundabout, and then towards Roslin.

Just before Roslin I cut down and go through Rosslyn Glen

Past both Rosslyn Chapel and Rosslyn Castle.

Then up out of the Glen and past the village of Rosewell and through the village of Bonnyrigg. I then head over the river South Esk and past the Dalhousie Castle.

I then enter Newtongrange and past the Lady Victoria mine which is now the Scottish Mining Museum

and home.

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Today we packed a picnic lunch and headed just under 30 miles south to visit the Melrose Abbey.

This abbey was first built around 1136 or so, was torn asunder around 1322 and rebuilt. The last resident monk died there in 1390. So, it’s basically been unlived in for around 620 years or so. One of the most interesting things about the Abbey is the fact that Robert The Bruce’s heart is buried there. It seems he always wanted to go on a crusade, so his friend James Lord of Douglas had his heart removed after death, embalmed, and placed in a small casket and took his heart with him on the crusades.

Sadly, the Black Douglas (as he was also known) was killed during the crusades. It’s been rumored that while in the heat of battle, his last, he removed Robert the Bruce’s heart and threw it into the battling Moors saying “Where Robert leads I will follow!” After his death both Sir James Douglas and Robert the Bruce’s heart (which were found on the battle field next to each other) were returned to Scotland and Robert’s son, King David II,  had his heart buried at Melrose Abbey.

Here is a picture of the inside of what’s of the main Abbey. I had the girls in this picture to give a clue as to the massive scale of the building.

We had a good time visiting the site.
For a better write up of the day visit Roberta’s blog site.

Well, I’ve been slow to update. I’ve been busy. Let’s see, I’ve flown to the states to take a class on the new Cray X2 system we’ll be getting in Edinburgh soon. I’m into the second week of training. I took a break over the weekend and went sailing with a friend and ex-coworker from my IBM days, Charles Grassl and his family. Had a great time. It was good to spend some time with him and catch up. I’ll have some pictures of the trip to update later.

I’m now in Mendotta Heights working with some of the developers and software folks. Our X2 is currently going to be the only one in the world that’s not in a black shop. So, it’s going to be interesting to say the least.

While here I’ve hit the Mall of America again. What a crazy place.

If you want to see our house in Newtongrange you better come visit soon. The property management company called today to inform us that the home owners (who live in France) have sold the house we just moved in to. Looks like we have until the 22nd of July (6 months from the start of our lease) to find another place to live and move.

 Oh and the fun, we don’t get our deposit back until after we move out. So, we get to find the money needed for a deposit on a new house and the money to move again, 6 months after we just moved half way across the world. Which was 4 months after we moved from California to Montana.

 So much for not moving around anymore.

Are we having fun yet?

Question? Why the hell did we do this again? We should have just taken a vacation to the UK and called it good.

This weekend we decided to get out of the house and go see another castle. This time we drove about 5 miles south to the small village of Crichton and checked out the Crichton Castle. This castle isn’t much more than ruins at this point. It was originally built in about 1400 and has had a rough existance.

 What’s really neat about his particular castle is that it shows what castles were all about. It’s a fortified home, and it looks it. There is a beastiality to this place. A rough and harsh existance is felt just looking at what’s left. This castle was actually besieged and captured in 1559.

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Even the stables are a fortified style structure. Animals were housed below and the servants on the second floor.

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With every good Castle there must come a Chapel. It’s known as the Crichton Collegiate Church. It’s the in thing to have after all, a chapel/church/kirk with your castle. Here is the Chapel that was built near the castle in 1449. It’s a solid looking building. I guess it needs to be to have been around for almost 600 years in the rains and winds of Scotland.

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There are some very intersting grave stones in the grounds around the Church. The oldest one we could still make out was dated 1709. We might go back and try to do some rubbings on  a few of the older and harder to read stones. Try to get an idea of what they say and how old they are.

Here are two interesting marker. Skulls and Crossbones on your grave. Interesting to say the least.

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